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Issue Information

A discussion topics for the OTC RPGs

Posted by
FleX-Man
on Jan 20 2013 - 02:03 PM

It seems that some of the OTC RP's have become large, and have been weighted down by the fact that they only have one thread. Sometimes active players like to heavily discuss the RP's in thread and it sort of disrupts the RP but also makes it very messy. Not to mention that most profiles are lost in a sea of IC posts in OTC RP's.

This isn't unheard of; even before the move to the OTC forum, epics were allowed discussion topics. Now that we have our own forum, RPG discussion topics would be far from a drain on the system.

Profiles, plot updates and discussion would go into the discussion thread while the RP thread would remain straight RP.

Also some of the BZP contest RPs have their own profile thread and then the actual RP thread, it would be awesome if we could have the same.

I greatly support this, as while I've always been of the opinion that OOC debates in RPGs are a good thing, they can create a flood of messages that make it really hard to find stuff. Having discussion topics for debates and profiles and updates would in all likelyhood make the system far more concise.

Actually it would be even better if we could have one for Discussion and one for Profiles due to the sheer amount of profiles some of the RPs have. But if three is asking for too much we can live with two.

From my experience 3 topics is how things run smoothly, Players can read profiles by just scrolling down or using the search bar, instead of having 7 pages of Discussion block things up for them. Afterall many of OTC RPGs have more profiles than some of the Bionicle RPG's.

Also seeing as new profiles don't constantly pop up either, there's no need to worry about 3 topics clogging everything up as Profiles topics could constantly drift back, they'd just be an easy resource via a link for players who need to see Profiles.

But the problem with just two, one for the actually rping and a second one for profiles/discussion, is that it still leaves the problem of getting all the profiles lost in the clutter of the discussion. Some of the RPGs in OTC have a lot of profiles, such as X-Men: Darkest Days, To Save the World!, and Star Wars: Odysseys, and the list goes on.

I think it makes more sense to have all the profiles in one single topic where people can actually find them, and then have the discussion in another. That's how it's done in the Bionicle RPG forum and it works well.

I support both variants (2 topics or 3 topics) completely. The overall idea makes for a much cleaner RP topic, and a discussion thread invites open communication, which I think OTC RPGs sincerely lack. I mean, sure, there are always PMs, but PMs are just that: Private/Personal Messages.

I support both. With the ginormous amount of profiles that have been coming out of OTCRPGs, a profile topic would be nice. Also, as shown last night (and since these RPG's creation), we're all fans of of the universes that we've written, or are adapting. People will have questions, and will want their say. Suggestion of a discussion topic is quite ideal, seeing as how not all of us are able to create group PMs.

From my experience 3 topics is how things run smoothly, Players can read profiles by just scrolling down or using the search bar, instead of having 7 pages of Discussion block things up for them. Afterall many of OTC RPGs have more profiles than some of the Bionicle RPG's.

Game hosts could always have a list in the first post of the discussion topic, too. Yeah, it'd be a lot of work, but still. Maybe even the host -- or a friend of the host, could have a blog entry or something where people post their profiles. Not exactly the most favorable option, but there are at least some other options.

I do get the convenience of profile topics, and it'd be nice to be able to have them, but at the same time, 3 topics is kind of a lot. There are four active RPGs right now (at least, very active), so that's 12 topics. 12 topics very often all on the first page, at least 8 (discussion and the RPG topic; profile topics would be used less) always on the front page.

Bionicle RPGs can have 3 topics each because they have their own forum -- having the front page full of just RPG topics (even if you don't include all of the BZPRPG topics) is okay because, well, what else is there? =P That's what the forum is for. But OTC is for a lot of things -- RPGs, artwork, stories, comics, etc. So having at least 12 topics (and I'm sure more will come soon -- I know at least one RPG has a couple approvals from judges, last I checked) that are very often on the front page, when shared with multiple other kinds of topics, is, as I said, kind of a lot. =/ Especially since the whole point of creating the OTC forum was to reduce story, artwork, etc. topics getting buried.

There no reason not to have a second topic and nowhere in the rules does it state that there is a limit to the number of topics one can post associated with a COT RPG. It's just that most people don't ask about it.

There no reason not to have a second topic and nowhere in the rules does it state that there is a limit to the number of topics one can post associated with a COT RPG. It's just that most people don't ask about it.

Pretty much this.

I'll make an amendment in the rules topic somewhere at some point to clarify that.